Hi there, as part of my fishing break in County Mayo, I'm fishing Carrowmore Lake on Sunday 15th August.

Could anyone give me any advice re tackle and tactics - I'm thinking of using my 8'6 7/8 wt rods, two set up with floating and sinking (intermediate) lines.

Presumably this should be suitable to tackle trout and (hopefully) any Salmon that take an interest.

Any further advice would be really appreciated.

Paul

I would use a longer rod, normally a 10-11 foot #7. Would stick with the floating line as the water is very shallow, possibly a sink tip if you want to get a bit down.
As for flies - bibio, fur bodied pennels, golden olive bumbles, goats toe, murrough, green peter, the usual suspects. Have found that they like their flies a bit bigger, but give the water a miss if it's been blowing for a few days as it colours badly. Enjoy a pint or two in the west end bar...

Ooops typo - i meant my 9'6 7/8wt (which, by the sounds of it should be fine) - what size leader / tippet would you recommend?

Paul

I'd stick with stroft in about 10-11lb but as you will normally be fishing a team of three you may wish to go up a size or two to avoid tangles. About 4 - 5 feet between flies suits me best, and that's when you see the benefit of the longer rod.

So are you saying just use Stroft and no tapered leader, i.e stroft tippet with a loop to loop connection to the braided loop at the end of the fly line?

Paul

Straight off the spool, I don't bother with a tapered leader. A balanced set up, bushy top dropper, larger/heavier point fly, smaller middle dropper and a nice easy casting style with open loops should keep tangles to a minimum. Remember that distance casting is not the priority, and a fly that spends more time in the air being thrashed about is less likely to catch fish than one that spends more time in the water. Work the top dropper close up to the boat and if you get into the habit of roll casting when you lift off the you stand a chance of hooking any fish that might suddenly take the fly at this point.